EA response is typical

Dirty Hipsters

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thepyrethatburns said:
Dirty Hipsters said:
That's actually really not true.

What's the biggest MMO in the world? World of Warcraft.

What's the biggest MOBA? League of Legends.

What's the biggest shooter? Player Unknown's Battlegrounds.

All of these games are ugly as sin and make crap loads of money.

Graphics are an easy way to sell a game, it's easy to market and easy to make a game stand out in consumer's minds. That's why developers and publishers focus on that, because it's easy to show pretty pictures in advertisements, and it's really hard to convey mechanical depth or the feel of a game through a 30 second TV spot. The games that get really big and have a long lifespan though? They're aren't always the prettiest games.

Remember, Counter Strike has been around since basically the dawn of time and still makes money despite extremely simple graphics and ugly clunky animations. Hell, people would probably still play 1.6 if Source and Global Offensive never came out.
Yes, people have loyalty to the games once they get into them but that doesn't change whether or not they initially flocked to it because of it's graphics. I have had two MMOs that I actually stuck with. Auto Assault and SWTOR (still on SWTOR). SWTOR can hardly be called a graphical powerhouse these days but I stuck with it. I still play Unreal Tournament and I still play on my original NES. None of that actually counters whether or not they were pretty when they came out.

In the case of WoW, that actually strengthens my point. Was WoW better looking than Everquest when it came out? (Not the trailers obviously as Blizzard makes really good trailers but the game itself) Yes.
Ok, putting WoW aside, how do you explain the popularity of something like LoL of PUBG? Again, these are ugly games, which came out at a time where they were incredibly outclassed graphically by their competitors. LoL came out in 2009 and looks like something that would have been out in 2004. PUBG may as well be Arma 2 visually and it hasn't even technically been released yet.
 

Jamcie Kerbizz

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Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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This is truly amazing, In a world that is so divided EA has brought us together with one of the most ridiculous pay to win models in AAA games ever.

erttheking said:
You know, at times like this I really want to look at everyone who defended microtransactions and ask "Has a line been crossed yet? Or do we need to go even further down the rabbit hole?"
You're implying EA was subtle with crossing that line. EA Straight up drove a rocket propelled racecar over that line And went so far they hit the ocean. AND! KEPT! ON! GOING!
Ezekiel said:
One thing I want to say that bugs me about the video. Blizzard stopped updating Diablo 3 long before this loot box thing became prevalent.
 
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Don't buy a game with the name EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix or Activision on the cover. Don't buy any game made by Rockstar or WB Interactive. They are no longer games, but vehicles for microtransactions, season passes and virtual currencies. These folks don't make anything worth playing anymore. These Gam...."Entertainment Products" are compromised in order to make room for taking more of your money (See ME3 From Ashes or this very post for a prime example).
 

laggyteabag

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I pre-ordered the game, because I really liked the beta, and it looked like it had a boatload more content in the full release.

All things considered, Battlefront 2 looks like a fantastic game, which looks gorgeous, plays really well, and in the end, it was shaping up to be a game that I could see myself playing for a long period of time.

But I just cannot support a P2W game, that also costs ?60. Not in a million years.

This 40 hour unlock for Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker was what tipped me over the edge, and caused me to cancel my pre-order. The game was asking you to pretty much stop your progression for 40 hours, to save up enough credits to unlock a single character. Dumb.

The recent change isn't a step in the right direction. It is an improvement over the old system, sure, but it is still unacceptable.

I will not be purchasing Star Wars Battlefront 2, unless drastic changes are made to the progression, namely the microtransactions, because I don't want to start playing my new game, and get immediately stomped by someone who just dropped $100, and is now sitting on massive buffs for all of their characters.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Progression system of any kind that relies on microtransactions doesn't belong in a $60 game. If they want to make it f2p that's fine. ANYTHING ELSE is unacceptable for me.

KingsGambit said:
Don't buy a game with the name EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix or Activision on the cover. Don't buy any game made by Rockstar or WB Interactive. They are no longer games, but vehicles for microtransactions, season passes and virtual currencies. These folks don't make anything worth playing anymore. These Gam...."Entertainment Products" are compromised in order to make room for taking more of your money (See ME3 From Ashes or this very post for a prime example).
Agreed. Unless we collectively boycott all of these companies, these practices will never go away. They'll become the new norm just like every other anti-consumer practice that came before. And it will get worse. It always does. So for fuck sake, grow a brain and stop this while there's still time.
 

RobertEHouse

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Adam Jensen said:
Progression system of any kind that relies on microtransactions doesn't belong in a $60 game. If they want to make it f2p that's fine. ANYTHING ELSE is unacceptable for me.

KingsGambit said:
Don't buy a game with the name EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix or Activision on the cover. Don't buy any game made by Rockstar or WB Interactive. They are no longer games, but vehicles for microtransactions, season passes and virtual currencies. These folks don't make anything worth playing anymore. These Gam...."Entertainment Products" are compromised in order to make room for taking more of your money (See ME3 From Ashes or this very post for a prime example).
Agreed. Unless we collectively boycott all of these companies, these practices will never go away. They'll become the new norm just like every other anti-consumer practice that came before. And it will get worse. It always does. So for fuck sake, grow a brain and stop this while there's still time.
It's a nice idea to boycott but that does not work when a company looks at sales globally. A few tens of thousands of people boycotting or not buying the game means nothing to EA. They all ready calculated your reactions long ago during the financial predictions of this game.

As long as hundreds of thousands compensate for the tens of thousands that don't by any of their games.Nothing will change at all in the game industry.

The real only way to hurt and end micro-transactions is to target the "Wales". They are the key in ending micro transactions as they are what are making them be successful. Sadly though that is not easy since China ended its decade long ban of video games in the country.

China's population is eating games like candy, and most, if not all of them have micro transactions.This new population of gamers' have yet to be burnt by such tactics and are willing still to dish down tens of thousands of Yuan for any type of game. EA is going to release Battlefront II in China after its release in Europe and north America. This battle over micro-transactions and loot boxes is going to be a long one. As it will take the newest gamer population in that country to finally wake up and realize what we already knew.
 

Rangaman

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You have to wonder if EA has some kind of vendetta against nerds/geeks/gamers/anyone with even a remote interest in sci-fi. First the catastrophic shitshow (and obvious "Worst of 2017" contender) that was Mass Effect: Andromeda, now this.


On the plus side we all know the game's online will be dead in under a year, so that's...something.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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EA are dishonest, sly fucks. But fortunately not sly enough. Still slyer than the majority of consumers though. They are gimping post-review economies to encourage "fans" to become impatient enough to pay even more cash. This is not in the name of art...it is all about profit maximisation at the expense of art and entertainment. If people don't have the time, why should they have to pay even more to enjoy it? Why not add, oh i don't know, a cheat code or something. It's greed entwined with manipulation and in my eyes completely inexcusable from a pro-consumer/pro-art point of view. There is always a better way that doesn't take advantage of the mentally troubled.

Edit: And they have removed the 'refund' option for Battlefront 2 now, after the public backlash. Hah! Like a magician. Can that be defended, I wonder.
 

thepyrethatburns

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Canadamus Prime said:
@thepyrethatburns why are you so determined to defend the shitty business practices of dipshit corporations that don't give 2 shits about you?
I was waiting for someone to pop in who hasn't actually read/comprehended any of my posts but felt the burning need to jump in anyway. *Crosses that box off of the Escapist Forum Bingo Card*

Where have I actually defended the Loot Box practice? Go over my posts and pick out the defense of the Lootbox practice. Stating that "You aren't going to be able to pay 2002 prices for a 2017 product" does not actually constitute a defense of the Lootbox practice. To those who still think that it is a viable idea to pretend that games are somehow immune to 15 years of inflation:



Edit: Just noticed Rangaman's post. His video, while it wasn't intended to bolster my argument, is better than PA. Well played, sir.
Rangaman said:
 

FakeSympathy

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Unsurprisingly EA, all the way. I don?t agree with Potatoslayer2?s reasoning for closing the thread either. Most of the comments I read were far more thoughtful and even entertainingly creative than a mere ?Fuck you EA? or ?Fuck this?. That type of response falls more inline with EA?s mindset towards its customer base.

I say just let it keep growing until it goes mainstream and EA can no longer save face or brush the bad press under the rug anymore. Anything less from a publications standpoint is practically complicity. I think they should have a collective responsibility to call out bad business practices or at the very least not shy away from doing so, even if it is for something as trivial as videogame content.

Before anyone says something along the lines of ?Grow up, whiner? or ?It?s their right to charge for content. You think this stuff is free to them?!?
Let?s put this into context:

Imagine buying a car from GM (I?ll use them only because they?re comparatively massive like EA), and it is fully loaded with a fancy radio, phone pairing, sunroof, USB port, etc.

But, you find out in the manual that in order to use those functions, you must either wait until you have driven 3,000 miles per function, or paid an extravagant ?accessories fee? to bypass that requirement.

Would you just say ?Well...I suppose that?s fair, because hey they need to make money too!? or would you be scrupulous enough to realize something is really messed up about it?
 

thepyrethatburns

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hanselthecaretaker said:
Unsurprisingly EA, all the way. I don?t agree with Potatoslayer2?s reasoning for closing the thread either. Most of the comments I read were far more thoughtful and even entertainingly creative than a mere ?Fuck you EA? or ?Fuck this?. That type of response falls more inline with EA?s mindset towards its customer base.

I say just let it keep growing until it goes mainstream and EA can no longer save face or brush the bad press under the rug anymore. Anything less from a publications standpoint is practically complicity. I think they should have a collective responsibility to call out bad business practices, even if it is for something as trivial as videogame content.
Given that EA beat out banks that were kicking people out of their homes for "worst company in America"....twice (which I disagree with but gamers have never had a sense of perspective), I kinda feel that most "downvoted Reddit thread" isn't really going to be the straw that breaks anyone's back.
 

Erttheking

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tf2godz said:
This is truly amazing, In a world that is so divided EA has brought us together with one of the most ridiculous pay to win models in AAA games ever.

erttheking said:
You know, at times like this I really want to look at everyone who defended microtransactions and ask "Has a line been crossed yet? Or do we need to go even further down the rabbit hole?"
You're implying EA was subtle with crossing that line. EA Straight up drove a rocket propelled racecar over that line And went so far they hit the ocean. AND! KEPT! ON! GOING!
And for some fucking reason, they had people defending microtransactions right up until this point. What I want to know is if these people have finally had enough, or have fully succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome.
 

FakeSympathy

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I feel like we are at the point where it's either season pass or microtransaction/lootboxes. These indistries arr forcing us to pick the poison.

Why is it that Overwatch the only game that got lootbox system right? Pure cosmetics, do not affect gameplay, and completely unnecessary to enjoy the game.

EA may have lowered the pirce on the heroes, BUT that still doesn't change the fact that they are sell locked AND lootboxes still plagues the game
 

immortalfrieza

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RobertEHouse said:
Adam Jensen said:
Progression system of any kind that relies on microtransactions doesn't belong in a $60 game. If they want to make it f2p that's fine. ANYTHING ELSE is unacceptable for me.

KingsGambit said:
Don't buy a game with the name EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix or Activision on the cover. Don't buy any game made by Rockstar or WB Interactive. They are no longer games, but vehicles for microtransactions, season passes and virtual currencies. These folks don't make anything worth playing anymore. These Gam...."Entertainment Products" are compromised in order to make room for taking more of your money (See ME3 From Ashes or this very post for a prime example).
Agreed. Unless we collectively boycott all of these companies, these practices will never go away. They'll become the new norm just like every other anti-consumer practice that came before. And it will get worse. It always does. So for fuck sake, grow a brain and stop this while there's still time.
It's a nice idea to boycott but that does not work when a company looks at sales globally. A few tens of thousands of people boycotting or not buying the game means nothing to EA. They all ready calculated your reactions long ago during the financial predictions of this game.

As long as hundreds of thousands compensate for the tens of thousands that don't by any of their games.Nothing will change at all in the game industry.

The real only way to hurt and end micro-transactions is to target the "Wales". They are the key in ending micro transactions as they are what are making them be successful. Sadly though that is not easy since China ended its decade long ban of video games in the country.

China's population is eating games like candy, and most, if not all of them have micro transactions.This new population of gamers' have yet to be burnt by such tactics and are willing still to dish down tens of thousands of Yuan for any type of game. EA is going to release Battlefront II in China after its release in Europe and north America. This battle over micro-transactions and loot boxes is going to be a long one. As it will take the newest gamer population in that country to finally wake up and realize what we already knew.
Boycotting doesn't even work nationally, it doesn't work period. These companies understand nothing but money and we don't influence that in any real way. Like it or not, the people who actually give a damn about their entertainment and are perfectly aware of the fact that things like microtransactions are screwing them over are, have been, and always will be a tiny microscopic minority in ANY entertainment industry, video games are just one industry among many where this happens. The people who are intelligent repeat customers have NEVER been the audience most of the video game industry has been catering to and seeking to exploit with these awful business practices, far from it, it's the blind fanboys who will buy up anything that company makes or with a particular IP and casual gamers who will buy anything that looks shiny and popular enough to grab their attention no matter how crap the game actually is or how much it screws them over that games like Battlefront 2 are aiming for because those people are significantly more numerous and highly likely to buy into crap like these microtransactions. The reason why developers in general focus upon graphics and fanfare so much over any actual substance is because they're trying to attract those casual gamers, anybody they lose as a result is going to be more than made up for by a factor of about a hundred by the endless crop of casual gamers and blind fanboys. We who actually know and care can never influence the industry in any actual way no matter what we might try to do because we simply are not the ones most of the industry wants to attract.

EA could probably state outright how they are screwing over everybody in their every trailer for their every game and the casual gamers and blind fanboys would still buy it and they'd end up making massive amounts of money anyway. The only reason they even bother to pretend to keep up appearances is to help snap up a few more people than they would if they didn't.
 

Canadamus Prime

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thepyrethatburns said:
Canadamus Prime said:
@thepyrethatburns why are you so determined to defend the shitty business practices of dipshit corporations that don't give 2 shits about you?
I was waiting for someone to pop in who hasn't actually read/comprehended any of my posts but felt the burning need to jump in anyway. *Crosses that box off of the Escapist Forum Bingo Card*

Where have I actually defended the Loot Box practice? Go over my posts and pick out the defense of the Lootbox practice. Stating that "You aren't going to be able to pay 2002 prices for a 2017 product" does not actually constitute a defense of the Lootbox practice. To those who still think that it is a viable idea to pretend that games are somehow immune to 15 years of inflation:

Maybe you didn't defend that specific practice, but you still seem awfully eager to come to the defense of greedy mega corporations that don't give 2 shits about you. They only think of you as cattle, or should I say whales.
 

sXeth

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Dirty Hipsters said:
Xprimentyl said:
I?d want to say this is a textbook example of a publisher being out of touch with their consumer base, but then I consider that this is EA, and it?s woefully obvious they simply thought they could get away with pissing in the consumer base?s collective face and calling it rain. Those Reddit comments are harsh, accurate and well deserved. EA knows it has a sizeable monopoly on gaming, that?s why it insists on buying up any and everything even remotely popular so they can turn it into an ethically questionable (at best) cash vacuum and leave the consumer with little to no viable option otherwise. It?s going to take a failure of a major IP (and a BIG failure,) to convince EA they?re anything other than invincible and beyond reproach.
I'm not sure you know what a monopoly is, because EA definitely doesn't have one.

In fact, I haven't bought a single EA game since they announced Origin years ago (though I've been tempted by 2) and I've been perfectly fine with all of the TONS of other options available to me.
Financially speaking, EA's mostly floating on their sports games while their other games largely take hits (Though still turn some profit, none of these big controversies have actually properly sunk a game).

Activision/Blizzard would be way more of the monolithic entity. And they're the western front end (along with Epic) of Tencent, who are probably the biggest source of the loot box stuff and similar schemes.

Tencent, while not being a household name, is financially the largest game company in the world. And owns either partially or outright, League of Legends, Smite, Call of Duty, Skylanders, Warcraft, Diablo Overwatch, Destiny, Clash of Clans, and the Unreal engine. (And a ton of movie license games, which dont get much mention, but are generally cash cows)
 

FalloutJack

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immortalfrieza said:
RobertEHouse said:
We're not responsible for other people who are stupid. You don't give up doing a smart thing just because there are too many idiots. That's just the laziest form of succumbing to peer pressure. So yeah, you go ahead and join the 'feeding the monster' crowd. I'll be in the 'still having money' crowd. It doesn't even matter if you think it has no effect, which I doubt. It's just common sense not to pay for something you don't want. I don't want this. Now, make ANY argument against that. I'll just stonewall you, and you can rinse and repeat to your heart's content.
 

immortalfrieza

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FalloutJack said:
immortalfrieza said:
RobertEHouse said:
We're not responsible for other people who are stupid. You don't give up doing a smart thing just because there are too many idiots. That's just the laziest form of succumbing to peer pressure. So yeah, you go ahead and join the 'feeding the monster' crowd. I'll be in the 'still having money' crowd. It doesn't even matter if you think it has no effect, which I doubt. It's just common sense not to pay for something you don't want. I don't want this. Now, make ANY argument against that. I'll just stonewall you, and you can rinse and repeat to your heart's content.
Uh huh. Go ahead and ignore what's right in front of your face just because you don't want to admit it all you want, it doesn't change the fact that it's still true. The gaming industry stopped giving a damn about people who actually give a damn about video games a long LONG time ago, they have no reason to and never will again. You don't want to pay for what you don't want that's fine, I'm not talking to people like you anyway who had decided long ago not to buy this game just because the publishers were EA even if none of these awful business practices were in the game at all and it was the best game that was ever made. I'm talking to the people who DO want this stuff and are considering boycotting it instead because they think it'll actually make a difference, all I'm doing is pointing out that it won't. Is it smart to not buy into this crap? Of course it is, in the same way realizing repeatedly beating your head against a wall when it's not going to knock that wall down no matter how many times you do it is a dumb thing to do thus not doing it is smart, it's a "Well Duh" thing. Does doing so actually do anything to solve this problem whatsoever? No! If boycotting did do anything these business practices would have failed right out of the gate and ceased to exist after the first publisher that ever tried any of them, or at worst not long after other publishers trying picking it up. The fact that these business practices not only still exist but continue to spread to more and more of the industry is all the proof any rational person needs that boycotting simply does not work and never will.

These business practices are the direct result of gaming moving from being the domain of kids and a bunch of guys in their Mom's basement to a much much larger audience. The larger the customer base they have to pick from the less the ones providing the customers need to care about the actual quality and fair service, this is a fact. This is true of every industry, not just video games and not just entertainment, but ALL of them. You want the game? Buy the game, you don't, don't buy the game, but quit acting like just refusing to buy something is some great moral crusade that's going to stop these business practices. Newsflash: THEY WON'T! Refusing to buy something you want because you think it will make that thing better when it's blatantly obvious it won't is nothing more than just depriving yourself of that thing for the sake of futility and is no smarter than buying it because it's there or because X made it.